Peer networking involves the passing of messages between computing systems that operate as “peers.” When a message is posted to a peer network, the message is propagated through the peer network by the peers. Computers operating as peers within the peer network are sometimes referred to as “nodes.” In a typical peer networking configuration, at least some of the nodes operate as both a client and a server. For example, a node acts as a client when it receives a message from another node. That same node also acts as a server when it passes that message to another node. In this way, messages are communicated within the peer network.
Peer networks are sometimes constrained from communication outside of a particular group, location, company, or domain. This restriction operates as a boundary to peer network communication, such that a message posted on the peer network will not be delivered to a node separated from the peer network by the boundary. Moreover, if two peer networks are separated by a boundary, a message sent on one peer network is not delivered to the other network.